Monday, September 04, 2006

WORKING from HOME

In a recent interview, the antipodean film star Sam Neill said - ‘I miss the World cup - it gave meaning and structure to one’s life’. I know what he means. People advised me to stay on at work because I’d lack ‘meaning and structure’. But work isn’t the World cup is it?

Many bloggers are ‘writers’ - how do they avoid the temptation to nip to the shops, search ebay, play freecell, blog or tidy their desk?

Today I went to visit Barbara’s cousin (Steve) who had been fixing my CD player. He’s a forty something singleton, quite good-looking but never lucky in leurve. He works from home. I drove out through Altrincham and further and further into the posh leafy areas. His huge house is on a modern estate (sort of) for rich persons with no taste. The house next door was Tyrolean chalet style with riotous displays of plastic flowers and a mechanical village, which lit up and ‘performed’ at night. Steve’s house was just …. a big house.

We had a coffee in his kitchen and I asked him what it was like to spend all day ‘working from home’. Did he spend all day in pyjamas after a long lie in until it was time for Richard and Judy?? Steve was quite sensible about this. He described how he had rigidly structured his day from early shower through lunchtime snack to evening aperitif! It seemed a very lonely life to me.

I confess that as a teacher my day was more structured than anyone could imagine. Bell goes - one class out and the next in. No bell in FE but the same concept exactly. My life long procrastination habit never stood a chance when it was necessary to go home and prepare lessons for the next day. If you don’t you’re dead. It’s a jungle out there.

I took a nice bottle of red to say thanks. But before I had the chance to hand it over, he said ‘that’ll be 30quid’.

16 Comments:

That's fookin' cheeky! Still, if he lives out that way and is typical of the type, you can console yourself in the knowledge that he is forever likely to be unlucky in lurve. And may even end up with a gold digger.

I would go mad working from home. I used to go mad working in an office. As you say, it's best not to work at all, drives you nuts. Just came across your site and can relate. I can hardly wait to be a pensioner, drinking sherry all day and pretending to be deaf, while boring the young folk with tales of snogging boys to 'Wake me up before you Go Go' back in 1984.

I used to aspire to life in a mechanical village, sadly I had to settle for a slum dwelling. I like your site, is it ok to link to you? I'l do it anyway. By the way if you liked the movie Crash you might like The Secretary.

Hi Dave: The Secretary sounds good (I looked it up) I'll give it a try. Yesterday I went to 'You me and Dupree' with a mate as we both liked Matt Dillon in Crash. It was execrable - what was he thinking?Oh yes - the money.

This middle-aged thing... hmmm, I guess yes at 31, and even 35 - but I have to smile when I see people in 50s and 60s who might think they qualify, not that I'd mind, or would I - living to 120?

work from home, lets see - I started a course in what I hope will allow me to do that, I want to use skills I have in web development, so I created my website to tune up those skills and bring them up-to-date, then I discovered blogging; I have done all but the last assignment in the course but I just can't seem to tear myself away from blogland to finish the study.

Thank heavens I still work 3 days a week in the real world, gets me out of my 'jamas.:-)Della